catmoon wrote:Virgo wrote:Namdrol wrote: Oh, I don't agree. I hate walking through clouds of smoke into a building.. Smoking is a nasty habit and it would be better for all concerned if cigarettes were taxed and banned until it just becomes impossible to smoke..
N
You know, your right. It's poison and there is no benefit to it's consumption. .
Kevin
If there were no benefit, no one would do it. "No benefit" is extremist thinking.
No relative benefit on the path of Creation and Completion. Smoking is ultimately without quality. So is killing. So it stealing. But that doesn't mean we should go around killing and stealing.
Saying "If there were no benefit, no one would do it," is basically saying that because an action is committed, it must be beneficial. This is clearly not true. It may be beneficial to somebody's ego-fixation, sure. But not beneficial on the path to liberation. Serial killers' neuroses are benefitted by killing, because it provides them with satisfaction. Meth addicts' neuroses are benefitted by taking a hit, because it provides them with satisfaction. Smokers' neuroses are benefitted by smoking cigarettes, because it provides THEM with satisfaction. But none of these things are actually beneficial to anybody in the long run.
If somebody is truly beyond conceptions, completely equanimous in every aspect of their life, and abiding uninterruptedly in Rigpa, then smoking would have no effect.